Event

Almost five years ago, a disaster struck New Orleans. The media said it was a natural disasterprimarily affecting poor black people. On both counts, the media was wrong. In his featurelengthdocumentary The Big Uneasy, humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets theinside story of a disaster that could have been prevented from the people who were there. As weapproach the fifth anniversary of the flooding of New Orleans, Shearer speaks to the investigatorswho poked through the muck as the water receded and a whistle-blower from the Army Corps ofEngineers, revealing that some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure duringKatrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the new New Orleans from futureperil. In short segments hosted by John Goodman, Shearer speaks candidly with local residentsabout life in New Orleans. Together, they explore the questions that Americans outside of the Gulf region have been pondering in thefive years since Katrina: Why would people choose to live below sea level? Why is it important to rebuild New Orleans? The Big Uneasyis laced with computer imagery that takes you inside the structures that failed so catastrophically, and boasts never-before-seen video of themoments when New Orleans began to flood and the painstaking investigations that followed. The Big Uneasy marks the beginning of theend of five years of ignorance about what happened to one of our nation's most treasured cities - and serves as a stark reminder that the sameagency that failed to protect New Orleans still exists in other cities across America. USA, 2007, 95 min.; Director: Harry ShearerREAL-TO-REEL: A DOCUMENTARY FILM SERIESSponsored by Stuart& Ginger Polisner